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=Activity 0: Introductions = = = = = Listen to this activity media type="file" key="OlsonJELT7008-0.mp3" width="240" height="20"

My name is Jon Olson and I currently teach at Ralston High School in Omaha, Nebraska. In December of 2005, I completed my undergraduate work at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln in Industrial Technology Education 7-12. I received my first Master’s Degree from Peru State College in Peru, Nebraska in 2009 in the area of Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Instructional Technology. I am currently completing my internship for my second Master’s Degree in Educational Administration and look forward to graduating from that program this May. Both my Master’s Degrees were 100% online as well as some of my undergraduate work.  Currently I am the head of the Technology Committee for Ralston High School and am an integral part of the Ralston Public Schools District Technology Committee in addition to the 21st Century Classrooms Committee. My dad, whom worked with electronics all his life, built his first computer in 1981. I have always been immersed in and surrounded by technology.

I have had a wide range of experience with e-learning. Prior to beginning this Doctorate program I had taken around 35-40 undergraduate and graduate courses online. Of those courses, I would only consider a few to be well designed and well facilitated. However, just as I did with my undergraduate practicums, through my experiences I make notes of how not to teach. My biggest issue is that colleges and universities don’t train the instructors on instructional design and the development of e-classrooms and e-curriculum. I have found that an instructor may be dynamic in a traditional classroom setting but terrible when it comes to e-classrooms. As for NCU, I have had only positive experiences with the clarity and ease of navigation within the courses I have taken so far. It is a refresher to finally attend an institution where things are the way they should be.

Currently I teach Architectural and Engineering Drafting, as well as 3D Modeling and Animation in a blended format using the ANGEL Learning Management System (now owned by Blackboard). I immensely enjoy the online atmosphere and in this course hope to further the development of my knowledge base in e-learning, development of e-classrooms, and creating effective online environments. My goal is to transition into teaching college/university level courses, online, fulltime or work with the development of distance education programs.